Laudato Si’ Project seeks to utilize connections with nature to instill a sense of wonder and begin to create a stewardship ethic rooted in faith. The summer months present great opportunities to do just that. Using small mammal live traps, snake boards, turtle nets and other ecological monitoring equipment, we are able to let groups get up-close and hands-on with Wisconsin wildlife.
Learning about the beautiful treasures of creation is not limited to the daytime. Few people experience the diversity of our nocturnal animals: bats, lightning bugs, and moths. We use ultrasonic microphones that hook-up to your smart phone that detect feeding bats overhead that are using echolocation. Even though you may not see them, the device makes audible their echolocation and auto-id’s the species of bat. Although Wisconsin’s 8 bat species present great opportunities for discovery and topics of conservation, our hundreds of species of moths should not be overlooked.
We make this great diversity of moths accessible through live moth trapping. By
making a homemade moth live trap you are able to make visible all those amazing bugs that move about while we are asleep inside. All you need to do is turn the black-light on in the trap before you go to bed and in the morning feast your eyes on the treasures it has collected. If you really want a project, purchase a Peterson Field Guide to Moths and try to identify some of them.
“Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker” -Pope Francis Laudato Si’ (Wis 13:5)
Catholic Ecology Center Blog 